Who would have thought that they hadn’t even been eating hot pot for a few minutes before Mu Xiaoxiao suddenly opened a bottle of cocktail, chugged it down in one breath, tossed her glasses aside, and started pounding the table while wailing miserably.
“I, I really didn’t expect him to cheat on me behind my back! And if I hadn’t cornered them in the car, he was still planning to deny it to the end.”
“Do you know what? They were both disheveled, and he still said nothing happened between them. Fuck, am I blind?! Am I seeing things?! If I waited a few more minutes, the car would have even started rocking!”
“And yesterday I asked his colleagues, and it turns out they had already met up for dinner together a long time ago. They all called that woman sister-in-law. Sob, sob. Liang Kaiqi told his colleagues that we had already broken up, and even said I was the one who suggested it. Fuck, how can he say something like that!”
“We’ve been together for three years, been through so much, shared so many meals.”
“When he was pursuing me back then, he was so earnest, coming a long way to bring me breakfast, reluctant to let me walk a single step of the night road alone. He would wait downstairs until I turned on the room lights before he left.”
“Can a person’s love really just walk away like that? Was only the moment he said he loved me the real one.”
“Clearly, back then so many people said we weren’t a match. My family didn’t agree either.”
Once she opened the floodgates, she couldn’t shut them. She wanted nothing more than to recount all the sweetness of their relationship and then vomit out another round of heartache from heartbreak.
Qin Zhen kept listening. You couldn’t quite call it attentive; he had just heard a slight movement in the bedroom and wondered if Shen Jin’an was feeling uncomfortable, or if he wanted to use the restroom.
Mu Xiaoxiao’s alcohol tolerance wasn’t bad. After drinking four bottles of wine, she was still conscious, though her head was spinning a bit.
She casually wiped her nose with a tissue, followed Qin Zhen’s gaze, and turned to look toward the bedroom. “What are you staring at the whole time? Are you hiding someone in your bedroom?”
“You’re overthinking it,” Qin Zhen said with absolute certainty.
“I knew it. Your standards are so high, you don’t care for anyone. Who could possibly make you willing to hide them away?”
Qin Zhen didn’t take the bait and just smiled.
Mu Xiaoxiao poured herself another drink and stared blankly at Qin Zhen for a while.
To this day, she still remembered the first time she saw Qin Zhen. He had been standing in a crowd, clearly dressed in ordinary clothes, yet he looked like he was glowing, instantly capturing everyone’s attention.
It was a pity Qin Zhen’s family was such a drag on him.
Tonight, she once again felt Qin Zhen’s perfunctory attitude toward her. She wasn’t even angry; her heart just felt sour, and she rambled on to herself to vent.
“Actually, I’m really sorry about that whole thing with Yang Xiaoliang. I could have helped you explain, but I figured having you explain probably made the money part more substantial and important anyway.”
Qin Zhen’s slender knuckles twitched, the emotions deep in his eyes unclear, and he casually nodded without refuting.
“Drink a little less. Breaking up with Liang Kaiqi is actually a great thing. Go back early.”
Mu Xiaoxiao covered her face and gave a bitter laugh. “I understand all that, but still, thanks Qin Zhen. If you hadn’t reminded me, I would have stayed in the dark for a long time and almost missed the blind date my dad arranged for me.”
“Come to think of it, it’s quite a coincidence. The blind date my dad introduced is from Huishi, and that wealthy young lady is also from Huishi. Her dad is a high-level executive at the Shen Group. I looked it up, and it’s a huge enterprise. It must be super rich. Maybe I’m just not good enough.”
“The Shen Group?” Qin Zhen finally reacted differently.
“Yeah. The Shen Group. When I had people dig up information, I accidentally saw a photo of the Shen Group’s CEO. He’s so good-looking. But he’s not even a bit worse than you.”
Qin Zhen tilted his head back, chugged half a glass of water, and glanced back toward the bedroom without leaving a trace.
In her wildest dreams, Mu Xiaoxiao could never have imagined that Qin Zhen really was hiding someone in his bedroom, and that it was none other than the very Shen Group CEO she had just mentioned.
The delayed effect of the alcohol kicked in. As soon as she finished speaking, Mu Xiaoxiao felt dizzy and disoriented. With her vision doubling, she waved a hand in front of Qin Zhen’s face and slumped sideways, motionless.
“Xiaoxiao?” Qin Zhen called out a few times, but Mu Xiaoxiao had completely lost consciousness.
Qin Zhen: “……”
With a complex expression, he thought to himself, what kind of messed-up situation was this.
A few minutes later, Qin Zhen changed his shoes and prepared to send her home.
The bedroom door suddenly opened.
Fully dressed, Shen Jin’an leaned against the doorway, frowned as he stared at Mu Xiaoxiao slumped over the table for a few seconds, and then walked over to Qin Zhen’s side to change his shoes.
Clearly, he was coming too.
Qin Zhen tried to refuse, citing the scorching heat outside and the fact that sending someone home didn’t require two people, telling him to wait at home.
To his surprise, not only did Shen Jin’an refuse to take off his shoes upon hearing this, but he also furrowed his brows and yanked Mu Xiaoxiao straight up by her arm, dragging her toward the door.
When they reached the car, Shen Jin’an put Mu Xiaoxiao in the backseat and sat in the front passenger seat, staring straight ahead with single-minded focus.
Qin Zhen couldn’t help but let out an amused smile, instinctively reaching out to touch the top of Shen Jin’an’s fluffy head.
“What is it?”
Shen Jin’an didn’t speak. He buckled his seatbelt, frowned, and stared at Mu Xiaoxiao through the rearview mirror for a few more seconds, looking thoroughly exhausted yet stubbornly determined to go.
All these actions fell squarely into Qin Zhen’s eyes. He thought for a moment, turned his head to glance backward as well, and half-jokingly asked, “Not afraid of someone seeing you this time? What if she wakes up later? You don’t happen to have taken a fancy to her, do you?”
Shen Jin’an seemed to just realize this hidden danger.
He leaned against the edge with an expression of weary annoyance and suddenly curved his lips. “If she wakes up, I’ll knock her out.”
Qin Zhen shook his head, thinking to himself that capable of generating such a thought, Shen Jin’an definitely hadn’t taken a fancy to Mu Xiaoxiao.
He adjusted his driving posture and started the engine, asking again while glancing at the right-side rearview mirror, “Then what if she wakes up and still remembers you?”
“Then kill her.”
Qin Zhen gave a start, turning his head to stare at Shen Jin’an.
He only saw cold murderous intent pooling within the other’s dark ink-like eyes, which instantly shifted into starry ripples the moment their gazes met.
Shen Jin’an offered a brief, fleeting smile and explained to him, “I was joking. Don’t be scared.”
Throughout the entire journey, neither of them spoke again.
During a sharp turn, Mu Xiaoxiao’s body listed sideways, tumbling straight from the middle to the edge, her head striking the car window with a loud thud.
She clutched her head, let out a few muffled groans, and showed faint signs of waking up.
Qin Zhen and Shen Jin’an exchanged a glance. Mu Xiaoxiao let out another groan, and Qin Zhen, panicked, instantly pressed Shen Jin’an’s head down toward his waist.
The interior of the car was dim.
There was a partition in the middle of his car, though not very tall. In truth, if Shen Jin’an just lowered his shoulders and huddled down in the seat, Mu Xiaoxiao wouldn’t have seen him anyway.
But clearly, Qin Zhen’s anxiety made him completely forget about such things.
Shen Jin’an’s face turned beet red. He reached out and pinched Qin Zhen’s leg, only to be pressed down even tighter by Qin Zhen.
“Don’t move,” Qin Zhen whispered in a breathy voice.
Shen Jin’an: “……”
Fortunately, although Mu Xiaoxiao hadn’t been sleeping too deeply the whole way, the alcohol aftereffects were too severe, and she never regained full consciousness. The car drove smoothly forward for another stretch and finally arrived downstairs at Mu Xiaoxiao’s apartment building.
Qin Zhen got out of the car, delivered her inside to the care of the building staff, and left.
When he climbed back into the car, Shen Jin’an was still massaging his collarbone with a cold expression.